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>> Dozens of Dakota Oil Pipeline protesters arrested Friday walking into a mall in downtown Bismarck. And forming a prayer circle despite demands by mall management to leave. One activist posted video on Facebook showing police arrests. Reuters reporter Terray Sylvester was there.>> Protesters I've talked to said that police were aggressive with them as well.

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Not in terms of the tactics they used, there was no tear gas, no rubber bullets, no mace today. But police responded extremely quickly probably because this was a busy Black Friday at the mall.>> One of the activists told Reuters, the rally was held at the main shopping center in North Dakota's capital on Black Friday.

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To draw more attention to a pipeline project that critics say poses a threat to water resources and sacred native American sites.>> Right now, police are preventing Dakota access pipeline opponents from reaching the pipeline itself. So, over the last few weeks, they've been holding more and more rallies in Bismarck and Mandan.

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Which are about an hour north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Each time they come to town, they see more hostility from residents of the area. Water protectors, as they prefer to be called, today told me that they heard racial slurs, that people were telling them to go home.

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>> For their part, local residents tell Reuters they're growing increasingly frustrated with the way the protests disrupt daily life and strain local law enforcement. According to accounts from police and protest organizers, the demonstrators were orderly and quiet. But recent protests have turned violent. And last weekend, police used water hoses in sub-freezing weather in an attempt to disperse about 400 activists near a proposed tunnel excavation site.